


Vows Renewed

by Raven_Knight



Series: 2018 Autumn OTP Challenge - Multifandom [27]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: (as long as Snape is the one to set up the Snitch from Dumbledore's WIll), Angst, Canon Compliant, Don't copy to another site, F/M, Grief/Mourning, set pre-Deathly Hallows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-12-25 11:18:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18260216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_Knight/pseuds/Raven_Knight
Summary: Before assuming his post as Hogwarts Headmaster, Severus Snape uses the Resurrection Stone to find his inspiration to continue his purpose and protect Harry Potter from afar.





	Vows Renewed

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. This piece, archived at Archive of Our Own (Ao3), is purely a non-commercial work of fiction from which I am not profiting in any way. This work may not be reproduced, archived, or redistributed by any means and/or in any format without prior written permission from me. Permission may be obtained by contacting me at r4v3n.kn1ght@gmail.com. 
> 
> This series of oneshots belong to the 2018 Autumn OTP Challenge, though I have done away with the OTP part of it and focus instead on either romantic ships I ship or platonic relationships that fit the prompt given. This oneshot is in response to prompt #27: Ghost. ~ RK

**Vows Renewed**  
By  
**Raven Knight**

He’d seen what this stone had done to the Headmaster’s hand, knew the same could occur for him should he touch it, but a part of Severus Snape simply didn’t care any longer about the longevity of his life. He knew that his days were drastically shortened ever since he’d clasped Narcissa Malfoy’s hand and swore an Unbreakable Vow. He knew they were even _more_ limited since agreeing to murder Albus Dumbledore in the event that Draco failed. What further harm could this rock possibly do to him that hadn’t already been put in motion?

He tore off his glove with a vicious snarl and curled his fingers around the stone, daring the object imbedded with the Dark Arts to rot away his hand like it had to the Headmaster. He abandoned the task of setting it into the golden snitch Dumbledore mentioned he’d be leaving to the Potter boy in his will upon his death. Dumbledore hadn’t wanted to touch it, so the task fell to Snape, as had so many dangerous and distasteful tasks these last sixteen years. He clenched the stone in his hand harder, impatient for it to decide if it would strike at him like a hungry snake to inject him with its dark poison or if it would do what it had been said it could. Snape knew that either way would mean pain for him, whether physical or emotional.

Concentrating on the stone, he closed his eyes tightly. When it grew warm in his hand but did not cause physical pain, Snape opened his eyes only to find drawing a breath impossible. Tears blurred his vision and he furiously blinked them away.

She stood before him. Lily Evans, the one he most loved above all others, recalled from the grave. She looked so utterly real, more corporeal than the torment he’d inflicted upon himself by gazing into the Mirror of Erised years ago. With the mirror, the glass had been like a wall erected between them, a border he could not cross. Her form standing in the room with him lacked that barrier, making both her presence and her absence more painful than he ever could have anticipated.

“Lily,” he said so quietly that no living being could have heard him.

But she smiled. “Sev.”

His breath caught. She hadn’t called him that since that horrible day by the lake. That horrible day he could never forget. “I never meant to—”

Her smile turned sorrowful. “I know.” She stepped towards him. He stayed frozen in his chair, conflicted between being afraid of this spectre and wishing more than anything that she was truly alive again. “I’m sorry for my part in your loneliness.”

He shook his head. “I brought it upon myself. I understand that now.”

“But you didn’t deserve it.”

His tears returned and he wiped them away with his free hand. “Yes, I did. For everything I’ve done and—”

“And what have you done?”

“I’m the reason you were killed.” The confession tore hoarsely from his throat. “I begged him to spare you, and he—”

“He did spare me, Sev.” He raised his head to hers stunned. Her eyes shone with bittersweet love. “But how could I let my son die and do nothing?” She shook her head. “I couldn’t.” Snape’s guilt burst forth in an agonized sob. A cold, wispy touch passed through his chin. Lily had touched him. He met her eyes, the pain of her death as fresh as that terrible Halloween night. Her eyes softened in tenderness. “Sev, if you need to hear it, I forgive you.”

Snape wept. “I haven’t.” He blinked away his tears to look at her clearly, the wetness streaking his face unheeded. No one would see him like this anyway. No one but Lily. “Your eyes,” he said, speaking of the ones that haunted him as he stared into the ones he loved and missed the most. “As soon as I saw him with your eyes, I knew that I could not protect him from a distance.”

She tilted her head. “Why _are_ you protecting my son? Surely not from any guilt you’ve been clinging to all these years.”

He shook his head. “No, not guilt.” He drew a breath of courage he could never muster when she lived, when things might have played out differently had other choices been made. “Love. Love for you. You protected him out of love for him, and I choose to do the same, but out of love for you, for your memory.” He lowered his head in a gesture reminiscent of a knight’s show of fealty. “I will do so until my last breath.”

“I ask one thing of you, Sev.”

Snape raised his eyes to hers, meeting them with determination. “Anything, Lily.”

“Tell him everything.” She pierced him with her eyes, the same hard gaze she’d thrown at him following that horrible day when he’d gone desperately to the Gryffindor Portrait and begged her forgiveness. A gaze that commanded obedience, offered no lenience, and allowed no refusal. He would recognize that look from her and all that it meant under any circumstances. “Everything,” she repeated. “Even if he does not like you, he trusts you. He will believe you. Find a way to tell him everything. You hold the key to my son’s life. You always have.”

Snape began to shake as he saw Lily’s form begin to fade. She was leaving him again. “Lily, no, wait!”

“Protect him, Sev. Tell him everything you know. Then, forgive yourself for my death.”

Three commands.

Three promises to make.

Lily faded further, nearly vanishing. He would not have time to swear to them all individually, properly. So he answered the three demands of a new unbreakable vow at once with the required two words. “I will.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Let me know what you think below! ~ RK


End file.
